FCP 6, capture to DV25, edit in DV25, preserve captioning?

Thanks for the captioning forum!!!

Our current workflow is to ingest from tape using DV25, Aja Kona 3 6.03, and FCP 6.0.6, make some edits, and then export as DV25 to a Nexio playback server (this latter step is an absolute requirement).

I've read here http://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/8/1036419 that with the Kona and FCP the only way to preserve the captioning is to capture using another codec such as uncompressed or ProRes.

1) Have there been any developments since that post was written that would preserve captioning through a full DV25 workflow?

2) If not, if we capture with ProRes or uncompressed, then edit, then export as Quicktime wrapped DV25 would we retain the captioning code?

3) Any other suggestions?

Thanks,
Greg

Hi Greg,
As Bobby said, if you capture 720x486, then go back out analog to a DV deck, then the deck will convert the line 21 captions into DV VAUX captions and vice versa. It will also work if you input a analog source signal into a DV deck (which internally converts line 21 to DV VAUX) and then capture DV by Firewire. But it won't work if you capture an analog video signal to the DV codec using a capture card, or transcode a 720x486 video file to DV, because then the line 21 just gets dropped.

If you want to skip the output to tape step, you have to use something like MacCaption or CaptionMaker to decode the line 21 captions and re-embed DV VAUX captions into the final DV movie file.

CPC does have lower cost Encoder-only software which can do this. Also our HD Enterprise version has the Assemble Captions feature which will automatically conform your DV captions to match your edited sequence from FCP, so you don't have to manually fix the captions to match your edits.

Hope this helps,

Jason Livingston
CPC Closed Captioning

I would go with ProRes 720x486 then decode and insert to DV VAUX.

What is not clear is whether or not the Harris Nexio can read VAUX caption data from the DV file. Seachange servers I know for a fact can. This may be something worth testing first.

I tried to decode a DV file with captions from the Nexio once and couldn't find VAUX data so this probably mean the captions are stored some other way.

Some servers accept DV files but then wrap them in the MXF format and put the captions in the MXF wrapper. If this is the case then you will have to find a alternate method to add the captions.

Harris people are hip to the captioning workflow. I would give them a call and ask about alternate workflows to upload video files and caption files into the Nexio.